Windows Vista Known for Problems?

Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
For a Christmas gift I purchased an HP laptop for ny wife.
I purchased a Toshiba Qosmio G55 laptop sometime in January of 09 for myself.
For years I have always built my own computer systems for myself,wife and friends.
Installed the O.S. and various programs loaded the drivers for various peripherals and all would be fine....no problems at all.

I was a little "gun shy" purchasing the two laptops not knowing if I was going to get into headaches (IRQ Conflicts, overheating,OS problems etc.)
I purchased both laptops from Best Buy,,,paid and additional $60.00 for each laptop for system optimization and recovery disks.

The HP laptop would at times just hang and a spinning wheel next to the cursor would spin on and on,,,then the screen would turn a hazed white with "No Cursor" just a constant small spinning wheel and the computer was locked up. The only way out was to press the off button.

Soon my Toshiba Qosmio G55 was following the same identical path as the HP's problems.
At one point the Toshiba Qosmio was getting the "Blue Screen" of death at shutdown. At the "Blue Scrren of Death" at shutdown there was this message:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computerDRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer, If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
Check for any Windows updates.
If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as Caching or Shadowing. If you need Safe Mode to remove or disable components restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select Safe Mode.

At times a boot-up I would get a message "Windows Explorer has shut down or not working properly" and the screen would remain "Black".
Thinking Windows Explorer was the problem I downloaded Firefox and ran it on my Toshiba and it seemed better
but there are still problems with frozen hazy white screens.

Yesterday I left my laptop on for quite some time and it locked up. I noticed the clock "Gadget" was not working and it was stuck 3 hours back in time.

Both laptops are running "Windows Vista Home Premium" Both are only a little over 7 months old. Both are doing the same identical thing pertaining to screen lockup's.

I am thinking the Vista O.S. is the problem and that is why Windows 7 suddenly appeared on the shelves. I have heard rumors that Vista is loaded with problems.
It would be a shame to purchase and install Windows 7 and still have the same problems.

Any information as to what you feel is the problem is or how to correct it would be very much appreciated.This is getting pretty annoying to say the least.
Thank you;
Rick

Any O/S will have problems, that's why it is important to keep the computers up-to-date with Windows Update. I would perform the 8-step procedure outlined in the virus forum or at least this for starters, then if it finds infections, do the 8-step afterwards.